Extraordinarily Ordinary
by FiendisHSerapH
Summary: EDITED (ShinoIno) "That's how I see you. You... you are special." (Please read and review!)


**Extraordinarily Ordinary**   
by: FiendisHSerapH 

It was an ordinary day. Nothing more, but maybe something less. The sun was shining ordinarily on an ordinary sky, and the ordinary winds were blowing in their ordinary ways. It was an ordinary morning to be exact, but someone was feeling extraordinarily... angry. 

**_It's an ordinary day today!_**

Hair tinted with pale sunlight fluttered with the breeze as movement occured inside the forest. A young lady clad in her usual deep purple outfit walked along the shady path, her own voice being repeated again and again by the canopy above her. Who wouldn't be upset if you'd wake up seeing no one inside your own home, and even your friends were nowhere to be found? It's not an ordinary day for she sensed something extraordinary going on. She walked and walked, her way of prodding turning irregular as she stopped at the clearing where no grass grew around her. She looked up and noticed that the trees had surrounded her in an extraordinary fashion and the clouds swum across the blue space in an extraordinarily fast pace. 

Extraordinary. This is one of the many times she grew sick of the word. 

She lowered her sight and looked around. All she saw was green... ordinary greens, different shades of them... and gray. 

_Huh? Another extraordinary?_

She squinted to see clearer what that thing was, only to find out that it's someone whom she ordinarily know. 

"Shino?" 

The guy walked closer upon being called. He just stared at the young lady's worn-out and exhausted form, saying nothing as he ordinarily does. Honestly, she doesn't want to hang out with this lad because he's... weird. This extraordinary _thing_ going on around him is sending her goosebumps right where she stood. 

_But at least he's a Konohan citizen... though with strange traits. That made him ordinary, in a sense. I need something to break this drab chain,_ she muttered to her rebellious inner self. 

"H-hey there." she faltered slightly, trying to cover up a little percent of her fear. She looked up again to the circular patch of sky overhead just as ordinarily as his bum teammate Shikamaru does and intoned, "It's an ordinary day, isn't it?" 

The lad looked around behind dimly-tinted shades to the sky, to the surroundings and silently concluded that they were standing smack in the middle of the clearing. He looked sideward to the girl standing beside him and replied, "It isn't." 

_Grrr... is he breaking the ordinary?!_

He felt movement, and he could tell that the girl felt somewhat offended as ordinarily as a mortal could be. Of what? He could tell, but it's too early to conclude. He needed to observe more. 

"It isn't. It's an extraordinary day for you." He lowered his head, his jacket hiding half of his face in thinking, then looked up again and continued, "Happy Birthday." 

Her mouth gaped open. She tried to speak, but no words came out. 

"Perhaps you're just upset because no one greeted you since you woke up. Or maybe you're just afraid to admit that it's your extraordinary day today." he supplied his observation, as if reporting. "I heard you shout earlier, you know."   
"Hmmm... maybe you are right." she shrugged then beamed slightly. She yearned for someone to talk to like this. She sighed in deeply and asked, "Say, do you want to eat... err... something?" 

The long-sleeved guy looked up at her, and in her eyes he saw that she wanted something ordinary to happen today. His answer came as a firm nod. 

But deep inside, he knew that this is extraordinary. 

------------------------------oooooooooo------------------------------ 

"This sukiyaki is so tasty!" she beamed while she took another crispy cabbage in. Silence was the answer.   
"What do you usually do at times like this?" She put her chopsticks down then leaned in closely to observe the lad eating spicy wasabi right in front of her.   
"Me? Just... stay inside the forest." he looked sideward, though of course it's not obvious with that kind of shades he was wearing.   
"And...?" an eyebrow rose, expecting a continuation.   
"And... train, keep still, take care of bugs."   
"Hmmm... that's weird." her right hand was placed right below her chin.   
"Not for our clan." his voice was muffled by his jacket's collar. He just paused from eating then looked up at her, posting a silent question. As if she picked it up, she suddenly stated, 

"I want to stay... ordinary." she mumbled, giving the guy a dejected look. Silence once again was her prize. "They treat my birthday like it's a great feast everyone in Konoha should know. Extraordinarily, you know." she munched once again, gulped, then continued, "Know what? I sometimes envy Shikamaru, my teammate, for you see... he's just an ordinary lad despite his extraordinary brains. People treat me weirdly for I am Yamanaka Inoshi's daughter. You know... they strongly believe that a lot of power is in my hands. They don't want to believe that I am just an ordinary girl with ordinary strength though extraordinary _fame_." She paused then drank a glass of water as if it will drown her frustrations away.   
"I want to be ordinary, just as I want my birthday to be. No noise, no crowd. Just..." she looked around then continued sadly, "... just like this. I hope you understand." she smiled but this time, very weakly. 

"Being extraordinary isn't that bad." the boy with mahogany-brown replied after finishing his tea. He paused, the way his ordinary manner of explaining had been, then proceeded, "Listen, Ino." The sound of her name coming from this Shino guy was something to look for, something... extraordinary. "Just like Shikamaru and I, you _are_ an ordinary girl with extraordinary traits." he paused, breathing in, thinking hard of what he _had been wanting_ to say. "That is how I see you. You... you are special. _Extraordinarily ordinary_. You can never aim to earn either of the two as itself." He paused again, picking up words along the way. "You can never be ordinary if people think of you as otherwise. And maybe that is just what people wanted to tell you upon celebrating your birthday extraordinarily." He added another pause for her to ponder on his words, then ended with the conclusion: 

"You're special to them." 

_What he told me was something. He's right all along._

Before he knew it, hands tightly squeezed his own that were resting on the table.   
"Thanks, Shino." she smiled, new energy emanating through it. She smiled in a way that he can term as extraordinary.   
"You're _extraordinarily ordinary_ to me..." he noticed that she wiped the sides of her eyes with her index finger.  
She had cried, as ordinarily as a young lady does.   
"You're welcome, Ino." Indeed, _she_ is extraordinary. 

------------------------------oooooooooo------------------------------ 

Sunlight bathed the streets. It was about two in the afternoon when she returned from practically roaming each of her favorite spots in Konoha after that meal. She opened the door to their house. Much to her surprise, confetti popped and showered on her by the door and she saw the bunch of people inside together with what looked like a feast on top of the table. 

"Happy birthday, Ino!" Kiba greeted in front of Sakura, her rival and Sasuke, her crush. 

_But not anymore..._

"We've been waiting for you, dear." her parents bubbled out.   
"Where have you been? I'm starving!" Naruto boomed behind Rock Lee, Tenten and Neji.   
"We thought something happened... something extraordinarily wrong." Shikamaru and Chouji smiled and Hinata clapped. 

_These are the people who think of me as someone special._

It was an extraordinary feast for an extraordinarily ordinary girl like her. And within all these commotion, she set her sights to the leftmost corner of the crowd. She saw him, the guy with dimly-tinted shades, the gray high-collared jacket and face whose emotions are very well hidden. 

And from that porcelain-like mask of stern expression cracked a very blithe smile. Gosh, was he special. 

She beamed... 

Indeed, she had learned to love the _extraordinary_. 

**- END -**

Hooray for ShinoIno!! HOORAY!! cough I expect your reviews, people NO FLAMES PLEASE! 


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